Well I am in my third grow and decided to start a journal. I started off with ebb/flow hydroponics in rockwool and I was way off in trying to replicate a recipe that was apparently over my head. It started with not treating the rockwool and stagnated from the start. I yielded a good pack and a half of stomachache-inducing dried bud from the tray though. My second grow was using Canna's new peat and coco based BioTerra Plus soil. I abandoned the soil during veg and went on to my current setup, coco, but I must say that if you know exactly what you're doing the BioTerra soil is totally organic and holds water for 10 days (after a root system is developed it takes a long time to drink all the water and nutes out their soil). I couldn't get the pH under control with it though and I don't have time or room to fool around with it right now so I have 100L in the garage and I'm going to try it with perlite at a later date.
On to the show
My medium is Canna Coco 50L bags mixed with 30% perlite.
My nutrient lineup is
Canna:
Coco A/B
Rhizotonic
Cannazyme
PK 13/14
Boost
Botanicare:
CalMag Plus
Liquid Karma
Sweet
Humboldt County's Own
Bushmaster
Gravity
Purple Maxx
The veggies:
My veg area is a simple 2x4 ebb tray with a variety of different plumbing options...I thought about ebb and flow but decided its not that well suited to coco except with mats and coco pots. I also tried to use an aqua shuttle to switch the ebb system to drip using items from my first hydro grow. This worked but I found 2 big problems. I had mini sprinklers with adjustable heads and they killed my pressure and clogged like rush hour at the site of coco coir. I had a 400gph active aqua pump. It was sold to me under the description of "Cheapest reliable pump to fill my tray" back when I started my first rockwool hydro grow and even though it is magnetically driven I thought it might be the reason for the low pressure. I'm still on the fence with that one because I have since switched to a Supreme model 3 350gph pump and have more pressure than I can squeeze off in my fingers so I'm sure my issues are now soley in the sprinkler drippers. I took out the Dremmel tool and 5 minutes later realized I was constructing GhettoTech basket drippers and I am not too cheap to wait and spend 25 cents to do something right. So for the moment I am keeping my rez mixed and running an aerator on low (bad fucking idea with bushmaster let me tell you) and I am handwatering with water from that rez. I have gone up to 8ml/gal A/B 10ml/gal calmag 10ml/gal sweet 5ml/gal rhizo and not had any burn so far. The roots are growing faster than I expected even after hearing so many good things about root growth in coco (especially with rhizotonic). My good friend is using Canna nutrients without rhizotonic in soil and he is using superthrive and liquid karma to get worse results in his roots while I havent needed superthrive since getting rhizotonic and I only use liquid karma once per week now (before rez wipedown). In 1 week I go from a 6" square planter to a 3 gallon Bato planter with roots showing out the bottom holes. In another week I have the option of 5gal rose pots for mothers. I am probably going to do that with at least a few in the next couple weeks so stay tuned.
Bushmater the hard way: I pH shocked my plants by watering twice from the same rez mix with bushmaster. After mix it was 5.4 and responding to ph adjustors. The next day I watered without even checking the ph and the following day I looked at my girls' new yellow rams horns and was not the least bit surprised to find my rez over 7.5 pH and here is the kicker. It took over 20ml of mad farmer pH down to get that number to 5.5 and this is in about 8 gallons of nute water. Bushmaster is a wonderful product. It hasn't quite stopped vertical growth but after 2 applications it has slowed it to a rate which I can raise my T5 rack without stretching which allows me to slow the growth of my mothers. These plants will be with me for quite some time and I'm not a fan of trees.
The flowers:
my flowering area is a closet, with a water heater in it. This area has worked and must continue to work for me until we move (my fiance is my partner in this project). Anyways right now I have 4 plants going top water style. They were duplicates of some of what I mothered. (2 of every healthy strain from every co-op I visit). I veg 2, mother 1, and flower 1. If the smoke is good the mom moves in with us. If not she's flowered out. The flowering plants are getting 8ml Coco A/B, 5ml rhizotonic, 10ml Cal-Mag, 10ml Sweet, and 5ml Boost per gallon. 4 somewhat bushy plants will take all the light from my 600w but I am constructing a low table for dutch leech trays so my intent in the future will be to run clones with very little veg time.
I welcome suggestions, comments, and discussion so long as it remains relevant to coco growing.
On to the show
My medium is Canna Coco 50L bags mixed with 30% perlite.
My nutrient lineup is
Canna:
Coco A/B
Rhizotonic
Cannazyme
PK 13/14
Boost
Botanicare:
CalMag Plus
Liquid Karma
Sweet
Humboldt County's Own
Bushmaster
Gravity
Purple Maxx
The veggies:
My veg area is a simple 2x4 ebb tray with a variety of different plumbing options...I thought about ebb and flow but decided its not that well suited to coco except with mats and coco pots. I also tried to use an aqua shuttle to switch the ebb system to drip using items from my first hydro grow. This worked but I found 2 big problems. I had mini sprinklers with adjustable heads and they killed my pressure and clogged like rush hour at the site of coco coir. I had a 400gph active aqua pump. It was sold to me under the description of "Cheapest reliable pump to fill my tray" back when I started my first rockwool hydro grow and even though it is magnetically driven I thought it might be the reason for the low pressure. I'm still on the fence with that one because I have since switched to a Supreme model 3 350gph pump and have more pressure than I can squeeze off in my fingers so I'm sure my issues are now soley in the sprinkler drippers. I took out the Dremmel tool and 5 minutes later realized I was constructing GhettoTech basket drippers and I am not too cheap to wait and spend 25 cents to do something right. So for the moment I am keeping my rez mixed and running an aerator on low (bad fucking idea with bushmaster let me tell you) and I am handwatering with water from that rez. I have gone up to 8ml/gal A/B 10ml/gal calmag 10ml/gal sweet 5ml/gal rhizo and not had any burn so far. The roots are growing faster than I expected even after hearing so many good things about root growth in coco (especially with rhizotonic). My good friend is using Canna nutrients without rhizotonic in soil and he is using superthrive and liquid karma to get worse results in his roots while I havent needed superthrive since getting rhizotonic and I only use liquid karma once per week now (before rez wipedown). In 1 week I go from a 6" square planter to a 3 gallon Bato planter with roots showing out the bottom holes. In another week I have the option of 5gal rose pots for mothers. I am probably going to do that with at least a few in the next couple weeks so stay tuned.
Bushmater the hard way: I pH shocked my plants by watering twice from the same rez mix with bushmaster. After mix it was 5.4 and responding to ph adjustors. The next day I watered without even checking the ph and the following day I looked at my girls' new yellow rams horns and was not the least bit surprised to find my rez over 7.5 pH and here is the kicker. It took over 20ml of mad farmer pH down to get that number to 5.5 and this is in about 8 gallons of nute water. Bushmaster is a wonderful product. It hasn't quite stopped vertical growth but after 2 applications it has slowed it to a rate which I can raise my T5 rack without stretching which allows me to slow the growth of my mothers. These plants will be with me for quite some time and I'm not a fan of trees.
The flowers:
my flowering area is a closet, with a water heater in it. This area has worked and must continue to work for me until we move (my fiance is my partner in this project). Anyways right now I have 4 plants going top water style. They were duplicates of some of what I mothered. (2 of every healthy strain from every co-op I visit). I veg 2, mother 1, and flower 1. If the smoke is good the mom moves in with us. If not she's flowered out. The flowering plants are getting 8ml Coco A/B, 5ml rhizotonic, 10ml Cal-Mag, 10ml Sweet, and 5ml Boost per gallon. 4 somewhat bushy plants will take all the light from my 600w but I am constructing a low table for dutch leech trays so my intent in the future will be to run clones with very little veg time.
I welcome suggestions, comments, and discussion so long as it remains relevant to coco growing.
